Understanding The NYC Sales Market By Borough Without Cilantro

August 1, 2025

Time to read [5 minutes]

  • Price Gains In Aggregate For NYC Remain Robust
  • Sales Are Down Nominally YOY As Listing Inventory Remains Constrained
  • NYC Housing Market Aside, Cilantro Really Does Taste Like Soap.

Since it’s Friday and I’m tired after a long week, this post goes against my policy content standard that emphasizes writing over visuals. I’m still thinking about the cilantro I had in a recent dinner, as well as getting my tongue soaped by my 5th-grade teacher for saying “damn” on the playground when I fell hard from the swingset at recess. But I digress. Even though many readers of Housing Notes are not from the NYC Metro, you may find the results of the Q2 breakdown and analysis interesting. I’ve been authoring quarterly market reports for Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens for several decades, and Douglas Elliman publishes them. Separately, I track the Bronx and Staten Island as well as the entire NYC market. Incidentally, many people refer to Manhattan as “NYC,” yet “NYC” technically refers to the five boroughs. I think the confusion stems from the idea that Manhattan is often referred to as “The City” by people who have second homes in the surrounding suburban metro area, and those locations tend to be called “The Country.” When speaking to market conditions, NYC sales are down nominally year over year, but down substantially from the supercharged market conditions of 2022. I also looked at how much each borough contributes to units sold and sales dollar volume. Manhattan sees the highest number of units and the most sales dollar volume, while the Bronx saw the smallest share of both sales by units and by dollar volume. 

NYC Sales Trends

Since sales trends lead price trends, I’ve dropped in several charts that look at NYC by sales by units and dollar volume. You can click on each chart to expand its size significantly. Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens tend to cluster by sales, as do the Bronx and Staten Island.

On a YOY basis, the patterns of all five boroughs are remarkably in sync. The 2013 spike in Staten Island was attributable to the slowdown and catch-up of the Richmond County ACRIS data feed.

Manhattan is clearly in a separate league by dollar volume compared to the remainder of the boroughs.

NYC Listing Inventory

Supply across the city has been drifting lower coming out of the pandemic, in contrast to the national housing market aggregate.

Manhattan inventory growth has leveled off coming out of the pandemic. The remainder, except Queens, has shown stability. Queens is clearly seeing a decline in supply.

NYC Price Trends

The following chart shows a widening gap between the median sales price and the average sales price. This widening gap illustrates the rising influence of high-end housing sales across every market.

While Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island pricing remain close and their trends are consistent, Brooklyn is catching up to Manhattan rapidly.

NYC “What If” Excluding A Borough

The angle of price ascent has been consistent over the past fifteen years, even when excluding the borough with the highest prices and most sales, which is NYC.

Staten Island’s impact on NYC’s price trends is nominal.

Final Thoughts

NYC market results are generally more robust than the remainder of the US housing market in aggregate.

The Actual Final Thought – This deductive reasoning is quite persuasive for someone who thinks cilantro tastes like soap. For full-on nerds, here’s a 2012 study.

Collateral Risk Network 2.0 Meeting August 6-7, 2025

My friend, colleague, and former director of the Appraisal Subcommittee, Jim Park, is bringing his talents to revitalize the Collateral Risk Network(CRN). For more information on CRN, please visit this link. He asked me to share this event announcement with my readers. The event is being held this summer in Washington, DC, at the NAHB HQ. I hope to attend, schedule permitting.

[Podcast] What It Means With Jonathan Miller

The From Ground Leases And Walk-Ins To The Blizzard Of Oz episode is live. The podcast feed can be found here:

Apple (Douglas Elliman feed)   Soundcloud  Youtube

Did you miss the previous Housing Notes?

July 30, 2025

What The Movie ‘Trading Places’ Teaches Us About Rate Cuts

Image: Paramount

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